Picture Credit: Instagram
After a dominating win over Australia in the recently concluded five-match T20I series in India, the Men in Blue have taken off for South Africa for the multi-format tour. While the Men in Blue will begin their campaign in the rainbow nation from December 10, Sunday, only a few members from the squad including the likes of T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma and others have left for the Protean nation along with Head Coach Rahul Dravid and members of the support staff including Vikram Rathour.
While the Men in Blue will begin the tour with a three-match T20I series, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sent only 47 members in the first batch. Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan and others, who will be only featuring in the ODI series will fly in the next batch while skipper Rohit Sharma and batting stalwart Virat Kohli are likely to join the squad ahead of the intra-squad match.
Members of the T20I squad, including Rinku Singh, Kuldeep Yadav shared pictures from the flight ahead of en routing the rainbow nation. In the post shared by Singh on his Instagram captioned “En route” with South African flag, had pictures of Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Tilak Varma along with members of the support staff.
The Men in Blue will take on Aiden Markram-led South Africa in the three-match T20I series, starting December 10 at the Kingsmead in Durban. However, the second and third T20Is of the series will be played at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha and New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg on December 12 and 14 respectively. They will then lock horns in a three-match ODI series, followed by two Tests to culminate the tour early in January 2024.
Team India squads for South Africa tour
T20Is: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vc), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kum ar, Deepak Chahar.
ODIs: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (C, wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar.
Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Prasidh Krishna.
